The Role of Feeling in Creating Architecture

Christopher Wolfgang Alexander (born October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian American architect noted for his theories about architectural design, urban planning, interior design, philosophy and mathematics. He is an architect, mathematician, and artist who employs feeling, intuition, as well as ration in his work. This paper attempts to give answers to the following four questions by reviewing his quest for the nature of order in his writings.
■ Can human feelings be employed as apposite and reliable criteria for architectural judgment?
■ Which feelings are reliable?
■ What is the essence of this capability, i.e. judgment based on feelings?
■ How would this approach change our understanding of the intrinsic nature of the material world and consequently architecture?